From Fieldwork Experience to Ethnographic Film and Text

This course is compulsory for students admitted to the Master's programme in Visual and Multimodal Anthropology. The course can not be taken as a singular course.

The course aims to give students basic research skills for utilising film or multimodal productions and text as different means in the production and mediation of ethnographic research. During the course the students will produce a film or a multimodal work and a written thesis.                             

Returning from fieldwork, the students will start to prepare the writing of their exam paper and the analyzing of their ethographic research outcome (instead of: editing of their exam film). In the analysis of their fieldwork material, the course aims at utilizing images, sound and texts as different modalities for producing anthropological knowledge. The film footage and multimodal material will be utilized for ethnographic descriptions and analysis, where film or other forms of audio/visual expression and text mutually inform and inspire each other. During the autumn term, the students will work on systematizing their empirical material and audiovisual material, and present a first draft of their thesis by the end of term. In the spring term the students will edit their exam film or work on their multimodal project and finalize their written dissertation. Film or audiovisual work and paper must be ready for evaluation by the 15th of May.

Students who successfully complete this course will have the following learning outcomes:

 Knowledge

The student:

• can distinguish and reflect critically on their own and other people’s ways of knowing.
• knows how to identify suitable analytical approaches based on their empirical material
• is able to discuss and evaluate theoretical and methodological approaches within qualitative social science and audio-visual studies
• knows the rules of scientific reliability in the establishment of knowledge within the qualitative social sciences.
• has knowledge of the debates on advocacy and empowerment in the social science tradition.

 Skills

The student is able to:

• demonstrate basic research skills as different means in the production and dissemination of ethnographic knowledge
• demonstrate an ability to try out, in an experimental way, different possible steps in the establishment of knowledge. 
• implement and analyze visual, oral, corporeal and other systems of meaning

General competence

The student is able to:

• make a research based ethnographic film or multimodal project
• present a consistent analytical argument in the form of a written thesis
• build knowledge about one’s own and fellow students’ empirical field through collaborative work and comparison
• demonstrate the relative relevance of different theoretical and methodological approaches to the empirical characteristics of research material
• is able to identify and discuss how knowledge production and reflexivity can be used as tools for empowerment of research partners and local communities

Obligatorisk forkunnskapskrav

SVF-3110 Conveying social realities: exploring audio-visual narrative strategies, SVF-3111 History of Ethnographic Film and Visual Anthropology, SVF-3114 Introduction to ethnography and anthropological knowledge, SVF-3115 Contemporary themes in social anthropology, SVF-3116 Multimodal Anthropology and evocative storytelling, SVF-3117 Project description with ethnographic fieldwork

If you pass the examination in this course, you will get an reduction in credits (as stated below), if you previously have passed the following courses:

• SVF-3905 From fieldwork experiences to ethnographic film 30 ects
• SVF-3908 From Fieldwork Experience to Ethnographic Text 10 ects

• Part of the teaching is organised in seminars (approx. 40 hours), combined with lectures (approx. 30 hours).
• The students present work-in-progress in compulsory seminars. Students receive individual supervision throughout the knowledge production process. 

Language of instruction and examination

Schedule

More info about the coursework requirements

• Students shall have individual debrief discussions about their fieldwork.

During the autumn semester students shall submit:

• a scene list or list of multimodal content
• a field report
• three papers exploring and expanding the ideas for the Master's thesis
• the final draft for the Master's thesis

During the spring semester students shall submit following:

• a written statement of the film or multimodal work idea
• syllabus selected by student (1000 pages confirmed by supervisor).
• two film synopses, one long (approx. 10 lines) and one short (approx. 3 lines) or an equivalent when conducting multimodal work
• three still images from the audio-visual work/ and 4-5 keywords/topics of the work, one giving the region/location.

More info about the assignment

The final examination is composed of three parts:

• Film (max. 30 minutes duration)
• Master's thesis (approx. 50 pages)
• Oral examination (Approx. 60 minutes).

The film and the thesis will count equally towards the final grade, the oral examination may confirm or adjust the evaluation.

Re-sit examination